Barbour County May unemployment | Jobs

By Joshua Ninke | email

BARBOUR COUNTY, AL – Barbour County’s unemployment rate sits at 11.9% for the month of May. This is higher than both the national and state average. The workforce has stayed basically the same as the month of April. Barbour County unemployment has risen from last year where it where it was already high at 11.2% May 2010.

The state announced Friday that Alabama’s May 2011 unemployment rose to 9.6% from April’s 9.3%. The overall rate is a little higher from where Alabama was a year ago at 9.5%. One of the biggest contributors to this increase is the April tornadoes. The national unemployment rate is another factor, steadily increasing to the rate of 9.1% for May. The last factor is an increase in the work force. College and high school graduations and schools getting out for the summer add a number of people looking for work.